Radio ham who spied on Nazis

From the archive, first published Wednesday 9th Oct 2002.

For years, Beryl Payne believed her father's passion for tinkering with old radio sets was nothing but a hobby.

Her childhood memories were of him sitting in the garden shed, surrounded by home-made radio equipment and aerials.

Her father, Cyril Thomas Fairchild, spent hours communicating by morse code with amateur radio fanatics around the world.

But Beryl, 56, recently discovered her father had been involved with one of Britain's best kept secrets, kept from his closest relatives and friends for more than 50 years.

Cyril, who died in July this year aged 86, was a member of a top secret spy network during the Second World War.

He was among more than 1,500 British radio amateurs who voluntarily spent their evenings and weekends locked away in attics or spare rooms listening to enemy encoded signals.

In many cases, even close family members did not know what they were doing.

Some believe the radio hams helped bring the war to a speedier conclusion but little has been publicised about their contribution.

Beryl, of Varndean Road, Brighton, said: "I only started to find out about my father's work in the early Nineties. Until then I had no idea.

"It was quite traumatic to find out how much involvement he had and that my own dad was a spy."

In 1940 Cyril was one of the first radio amateurs to be asked by the Government to help listen to enemy signals.

The select group were given the name Voluntary Interceptors (VIs) and the organisation became MI8 but was generally known as the Radio Security Service (RSS).

The volunteers, who were spread throughout Britain, listened to signals from Germany, Italy and Russia in their spare time.

Cyril and his fellow volunteers had no idea what they were listening to. Decades later they discovered many transmissions they picked up were from the German Secret Service.

From the attic of his home in Dover Road, Brighton, Cyril may even have listened to messages from Hitler's bunker.

The signals were written down by the VIs and sent to PO Box 25, Barnet.

At this intercept station, hundreds of people worked to analyse the data, decipher the codes and discover what the Germans were planning.

As the organisation grew, its headquarters came under the control of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6).

In 1941 Cyril became one of the VIs asked to move to Barnet to become a station employee.

He helped decipher enemy encoded messages until the end of the war and then moved back to Brighton.

Beryl said: "It was a very secret service and through their work the war was brought to a timely end."

After the war, Cyril collected hundreds of pieces of radio equipment, books and memorabilia. Until his death the collection was kept in his garden shed.

Today Beryl is trying to make people aware of the VIs and she wants to find somewhere in Sussex to display her father's collection.

Her efforts are being supported by the Worthing and District Amateur Radio Club, of which her father was a member.

She said: "I don't want this piece of history to be locked away and forgotten about. I want it to be on show, so people can enjoy it and so my dad's life and work can be remembered."

Don Wallis, 76, also worked at the intercept station at Barnet during the Second World War. He was recruited at the age of 17 and was taught morse code before being sent to Italy to send information back to the UK.

Mr Wallis, of Upper Belgrave Road, Seaford, said: "Over the last 60 years, much of the equipment we used has disappeared.

"It would be wonderful to see Cyril's radios on permanent display and have the work of the RSS acknowledged in some way."

Anyone who would like to help should call Beryl Payne on 01273 551124.

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